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Will a Google Tax help Australia's budget?

Australia is considering imposing a levy on big companies who funnel money into offshore bank accounts to avoid paying tax.

Google's accounts also show that the company paid $11.7 million tax on profit of $58.7 million in 2014. Profit was up from $46.5 million the year before.

Its cashflow statement said income taxes paid in the 2014 period, was $13.7 million. But the ATO recently told the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that the more relevant measure is tax paid on profit (in Google's case the $11.7 million figure).

The Obama administration is pressuring the Abbott government to back away from plans to target American technology multinationals for higher taxes.

In any case, Google's tax bill is only a fraction of its Australian profits, which don't count for more than $2 billion worth of income it earns through advertising locally on its lucrative search engine business.

The company said in 2014 it paid $19.7 million in payroll and "other" taxes such as fringe benefits in Australia.

Google Australia's managing director, Maile Carnegie, recently told the inquiry that their tax arrangements were well within the law.

There are estimates Google's tax rate in Singapore is as low as 10 per cent.

Ms Carnegie did not confirm how much tax the company paid in the island nation, but confirmed to the inquiry earlier this month that the tax generated from Google's advertising revenue, is paid in Singapore.

"Google Australia provides sales and marketing services to Google Singapore, and we get basically revenue for those services," she said in evidence to the inquiry.

In the meantime, the Abbott government wants to work with the United Kingdom to implement interim measures to tax multinationals. It could announce new measures in the May budget, just months before the OECD hands down its final plan.

The OECD has been tasked by G20 governments to deliver a plan that stops companies profit shifting. This plan is due by October, but the immense public pressure mounting on political leaders to act fast, means that they could move sooner in introducing or beefing up domestic tax laws.

Ms Carnegie told the inquiry she was against the federal government taking unilateral action. "It will add more complexity and more uncertainty and will lead to less innovation and less growth and job creation," she said.